Morality in O’Brien’s Going After Cacciato Essay

Morality in O’Brien’s Going After Cacciato Essay

Essay Preview

Morality in O’Brien’s Going After Cacciato

Going After Cacciato, by Tim O'Brien, is a book that presents many problems in understanding. Simply trying to figure out what is real and what is fantasy and where they combine can be quite a strain on the reader. Yet even more clouded and ambiguous are the larger moral questions raised in this book. There are many so-called "war crimes" or atrocities in this book, ranging from killing a water buffalo to fragging the commanding officer. Yet they are dealt with in an almost offhanded way. They seem to become simply the moral landscape upon which a greater drama is played-- i.e. the drama of running away from war, seeking peace in Paris. This journey after Cacciato turns into a morality play, the road Westward metaphor. As Dennis Vannatta explains, "The desire to flee may have begun as a reaction to fear, but by the time the squad has reached Paris, Paul has nurtured and cultivated it until it has become a political, moral, and philosophical statement" (245). But what about the atrocities going on all the time? How could they be ignored in the face of this larger drama? As Milton J. Bates puts it, although Going After Cacciato is "not atrocity-based in the manner of much Vietnam War autobiography and fiction, [it does] record incidents in which Vietnamese civilians are beaten or killed and have their livestock and homes destroyed" (270). This book has an almost offhanded-like way of dealing with these My Lai-like atrocities. Why? What's going on here?

Well, one thing that one must take into consideration is the author's aim. As quoted by Timothy J. Lomperis at a conference, O'Brien has said, "'For me, the purpose of writing fiction is to explore moral quandaries. The...

... middle of paper ...

...ving dreamed a marvelous dream, I urge you to step boldly into it, to join your dream and to live it" (O'Brien 284). Thoughts lead to actions. But dreaming is also doing. The act of imagination can sometimes have more power than any technological weapon. It is imaginations that stop wars.

It is art fulfilling its role in society. It is art that brings the moral issues. It is art that makes us human.

Need Writing Help?

- Romanticism in Tim O'Brien's Going After Cacciato Critics of Tim O'Brien's Going After Cacciato have examined its narrative technique (see Raymond) and its position in literature as metafiction (see Herzog). Still other critics have commented on the motif of time (see McWilliams) and the theme and structure (see Vannatta). On the last point, critics find the structure of the novel is fragmented to reveal the nature of the United States' involvement in Vietnam. Unfortunately, this fragmentation makes the novel appear structurally weak. Critics have found no unifying element to the parts to affirm the sense of wholeness readers feel after completing O'Brien's novel. Nevert... [tags: Going After Cacciato Essays]

- Blending Reality and Fantasy in Going After Cacciato by O'Brien As O'Brien's third novel, Going After Cacciato is one of his most acclaimed works. The book brings to the reader many chilling aspects of war while developing a connection between the reader and the narrator. After many years, Going After Cacciato still dominates over more recent war novels by providing a unique glimpse into the soldiers mind. O'Brien reflects upon his wartime experiences in Vietnam while successfully blending reality and fantasy in an original war story.... [tags: Going After Cacciato Essays O'Brien]

- Revelation through Experience in Heart of Darkness, Going After Cacciato, and The Things They Carried Foreign lands seemingly possessed by evil spirits as well as evil men, ammunition stockpiles, expendable extremities and splintered, non-expendable limbs carpeting the smoking husks of burnt-out villages, the intoxicating colors of burning napalm, and courage mixed with cowardice in the face of extreme peril. These are just a few examples of the spell-binding images presented in the novels read in the class entitled The Literature of War at Wabash College.... [tags: Heart Darkness Going Cacciato Things Carried]

- In Tim Robbin's story Going After Cacciato, the main character, Paul Berlin, seeks to tell a story in which he and the gang attempt to catch the runaway soldier Cacciato, while at the same time trying to flee from the harsh environment of the Vietnam War, to Paris. Their journey eventually leads Paul Berlin to Iran where the crew of Paul Berlin, the Lieutenant, Doc Peret, Sarkin Aung Wan, and Stink Harris to name a few become stuck at the border of the country with absolutely no way of getting in because they seem to not have any passports.... [tags: Character Analysis, Paul Berlin]

- The Hardships Facing Vietnam War Soldiers in Tim O'Brien’s Going after Cacciato and In the Lake of the Woods The Vietnam War was, mentally and physically, one of the most brutal the United States has ever participated in. Our soldiers had to undergo daily miseries and sufferings which wore on them in body and mind. Dysentery was a common cause of physical wasting. Other diseases combined with the continuous rain and mud caused flesh to rot and made daily life that much more insufferable. Long periods of boredom would be broken by unexpected guerilla attacks or booby traps.... [tags: Tim O'Brien’s Going After Cocciato]

- Going After Cacciato ﻿It is generally recognized that Tim O’Brien’s Going After Cacciato (1978) is most likely the best novel of the Vietnam war, albeit an unusual one in that it innovatively combines the experiential realism of war with surrealism, primarily through the overactive imagination of the protagonist, Spec Four Paul Berlin. The first chapter of this novel is of more than usual importance. Designed to be a self-sufficient story (McCaffery 137) and often anthologized as one, this chapter is crucial to the novel in that it not only introduces us to the characters and the situation but also sets the tenor of the novel and reveals its author’s view of this war in rela... [tags: essays papers]

- Morality is not exactly a widely discussed topic in today’s day and age. Morality in its most basic definition is principals concerning the distinction between right and wrong or good and bad behavior. What is morally right or wrong is a distinction that plagues the world. Morality isn 't the same from person to person, different cultures, some are universal, and some are just basic human emotion. I believe that morality is almost like a code of conduct or unspoken rules our very soul follows our entire life.... [tags: Morality, Ethics, Religion, Moral]

- Going After Cacciato, an epic novel written by Tim O’Brien, is about a platoon of men going away without leave (AWOL) searching for a young man named Cacciato in the imagination of a man of the platoon named Paul Berlin. In Going After Cacciato the “tea party,” between the AWOL platoon and Li Van Hgoc contributes greatly to the novel by adding to the confusion and teaching the reader how to deal with the war and the ’noise.’ The first thing that this “tea party” does is that it introduces the reader to Li Van Hgoc.... [tags: essays research papers]

- The years 1961 to 1972 saw the American involvement in Vietnam. For a little over ten years, America sent its sons off to fight for an unknown cause in a country they knew little about. When the United States finally pulled out of Southeast Asia, many were left scratching their heads. Over 58,000 young men died without really knowing why. Although it is a work of fiction, Tim O’Brien’s Going After Cacciato expresses the views of those who spent their lives in the jungles of Vietnam. The Vietnam War was not a war fought by volunteers; it was fought by men who were more or less forced to go.... [tags: essays research papers]

- Wilfred Owen's Dulce Et Decorum Est, Tim OBrien's The Things They Carried, and Siegfried Sassoon's Suicide in the Trenches Many war pieces express a distinct sense of truth, hatred, and anger that can be found in the style, tone, and imagery they possess. Incredible images are created in ones mind as war writings are read and heard. Works written by such writers as Siegfried Sassoon, Wilfred Owen, and Tim OBrien really reach out to the audience by way of the authors choice of words and images that they use in their writing.... [tags: Owen Dulce OBrien Carried Sassoon Essays]